In electrical engineering and electronics, a large number of plugs and plug receptacles of many different types are known. These serve to transmit electrical power and/or electrical signals with the widest possible range of voltages, currents, frequencies, and data rates. To prevent the emission or coupling-in of electromagnetic interference, plugs and plug receptacles may be provided with single or multiple shielding in accordance with the cables or other transmission elements connected therewith. To protect against damp, dusty, or chemically aggressive environments, plugs and plug receptacles comprise a very wide range of sealing elements. Screw fittings or latch fittings may serve to secure against separation of a plug and a plug receptacle. Due to the extremely wide range of applications and conditions of use, a wide variety of optimized plugs and plug receptacles are available.
A relatively new field of use for plugs and plug receptacles is the transmission of drive power in an electrically driven motor vehicle. This drive power is transmitted between an energy storage means, for example a storage battery, a fuel cell, a generator, or other energy source, a power converter and one or more drive motors in one direction or in both directions, alternately. In particular between the power converter and the drive motor(s), the drive power is transmitted in pulse width-modulated manner and thus with a high AC component. To prevent the emission of electromagnetic interference signals, use is made of cables or leads with shielding.
Motor vehicles with an electromotive drive existed until recently only in the form of prototypes or short run models. For this reason, the plugs and plug receptacles which have been used in the power transmission area are those which are readily available but are distinguished for the most part by a robust but also very complex structure. These plugs and plug receptacles are therefore complex and expensive to produce and fit.
With electrically driven motor vehicles moving into the realms of series and mass production, the demands placed on the plugs and plug receptacles in the power transmission area are also changing. They not only have to be robust and ensure long-term, malfunction-free functioning over the entire life of the motor vehicle, but also have to be simple and cheap to produce and fit.